October 2013 - June 2016

Steps to a Natural Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics – deriving quantum mechanics from new axioms with clear physical meaning

Grant ID

43297

Project Leader(s)

Daniel Rohrlich

Grantee(s)

Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Grant Amount

$162,553

Funding area

Natural Sciences

Department

Natural Sciences

Quantum mechanics is unlike any other theory in physics in having several plausible interpretations, but no single agreed interpretation. At the same time, evolving quantum technologies have opened the way to new tests and new interpretations of quantum mechanics. The aim of this project is an interpretation so natural as to win consensus. Steps towards such an interpretation will include novel types of measurements, exhibiting new quantum effects, both in theory and in the laboratory; time-reversal symmetry in microphysics (the idea that the arrow of time that flies through our daily experience does not apply to microphysics); and an alternative set of axioms, with clear physical meaning, for deriving quantum mechanics (instead of the set of obscure mathematical statements upon which quantum mechanics has historically been based). Progress on any of these fronts could produce, via a paradigm change, consensus on how to interpret quantum mechanics, a consensus that has eluded physicists and philosophers for over a century.